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Compares Layard, Nickell and Jackman′s empirical model of UK unemployment with other time‐series econometric studies to assess whether the balance of evidence supports their analysis. Compares estimates of the effect on the UK NAIRU of factors such as benefits, union strength, mismatch, taxes, the exchange rate and hysteresis. Highlights and discusses differences of approach – e.g. to the exogeneity of the real exchange rate, the permanence of wedge effects and to hysteresis. Empirical results are found to be very sensitive to the precise way in which models are formulated and estimated. This suggests that any estimates of the level of the NAIRU are likely to be unreliable. Finds however, considerable empirical support for the kind of interactions between wages, prices and unemployment that Layard, Nickell and Jackman include in their model.

Assesses the NAIRU framework for analysing the determinants of equilibrium unemployment, as expressed in Layard, Nickell and Jackman′s Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market. It is argued that the NAIRU has produced many useful insights regarding the effects of socio‐economic factors on wage determination, but has not produced a plausible account of the determination of equilibrium unemployment.

This chapter presents a spiritual or wisdom-based approach to development, its rationale, conceptualization, methods and examples of applications. The politics of being proposes that societies explicitly make the fulfillment (‘being’) of all its members – humans and non-humans – their main goal, which should guide the development and implementation of public policies. It stands in opposition to the current development paradigm focused on economic growth or ‘having’, and rooted in a set of modern western values – individualism, materialism, reductionism, anthropocentrism, etc. By nourishing our relational nature, the politics of being can address the root causes of the meta crisis the world is facing, reconciling human flourishing with sustainability and supporting the cultural evolution that is needed. It proposes a dialogue between wisdom and science, the two main areas of knowledge, to guide its design and implementation. It conceptualizes ‘being’ as the actualization of our truest ‘being’ and our highest ‘being’. This means that societies should provide the right conditions for their human members to express themselves and fulfil their healthy aspirations, as well as to develop human virtues and qualities. Wisdom traditions and spiritual teachings offer relevant insights into the nature of human fulfilment and the process of spiritual evolution that can be applied to societies. They emphasize the cultivation of spiritual values and qualities such as love, peace, happiness, life, mindfulness, mystery and the understanding of interconnectedness. In recent decades, these qualities have become areas of scientific research and been at the core of social change and development initiatives. Together they can serve as the foundations of the politics of being and allow to identify actionable public policy agendas in many sectors mainly based on existing examples.

Much attention has been devoted in the recent literature to temporal variations in the non‐accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (N.A.I.R.U.). Grubb, Layard and Symons (1984) note that the N.A.I.R.U. has increased over recent years, this observation being based on data ranging across 19 O.E.C.D. countries, including the U.S.A., the U.K. and Japan. Hargreaves Heap (1980) argues that choosing a “wrong” natural rate ‐ that is, setting actual unemployment “too high” above the N.A.I.R.U. as part of a counter‐inflation policy ‐ can be damaging since it might itself raise the long‐run equilibrium level of unemployment. A variety of justifications is given for this assertion, among which the depreciation of the value of unemployed human capital is prominent.

There is no shortage of arguments about the causes of unemployment and its potential solutions. The attention given to the problem is only matched by the failure to achieve a useful analysis. The article looks at why this should be so, and attempts to indicate the potential of a more social perspective for understanding the nature and causes of unemployment.

We examine a large sample of some 100 economies worldwide to study the impact of financial sector size expansion on labor market performance. Simple linear dynamic panel data models inspired by the well-developed finance-growth literature suggest that (on average) a larger financial sector is beneficial for the labor market as it reduces unemployment rates. However, estimating country- and period-specific benchmark levels of financial sector size, we document that the relative contribution of finance vanishes with excessive levels of finance, and excessive levels of credit may actually be detrimental to employment. These non-linearities in the finance-unemployment nexus are more pronounced within developed economies. Overall, our study sheds new light on the ongoing controversy about the impact of the financial sector on societal well-being and highlights the importance of monitoring the expansion of the financial sector, in particular when it comes to credit markets.

We assess the impact of labor litigations on the ex post performance of firms. Using a sample of 44 French labor litigation cases, our empirical results confirm that the compensation amount requested by an employee has a significant and negative influence on the firm financial performance. Although that effect fades over time, it still remains significant four years after the employee has initiated the legal procedure. In addition, firms that have opted for a trial rather than a conciliation procedure improved their financial performance only in the first two years following the triggering of the litigation. That effect can be mainly explained by the long delays in the judgment of French labor courts. Our results contribute to the debate on the labor litigation impacts by assessing the financial opportunity of enacting pro-worker labor legislation dealing with employment redundancies.

Purpose — This chapter explores the concept of social exclusion, the evolution of the term, how it is defined and understood, the place in policy formation and its association with the need for mobility. The association between social exclusion and mobility is overviewed.

Methodology — The concept of social exclusion grew from an understanding that some people are not able to fully participate in mainstream society. Ideas around this were first discussed under the framework of income poverty, moved to ideas of multiple disadvantage and then has clustered around social exclusion. Although many factors have been subsumed under the concept, the ability to be mobile and how this is associated with social exclusion has not been fully explored.

Findings — It is argued that while social exclusion has brought ideas of non-participation in society more firmly into the political agenda, the changing definitions and understandings and failure to build knowledge systematically has hampered the effectiveness of the concept. Social exclusion is viewed in the research reported in this chapter as an issue of social justice defining the critical dimensions needed for a person to be included. Institutional and personal factors, and broad societal trends influence the extent of inclusion/exclusion a person experiences. It is likely that many of these impacts will be influenced by mobility, thus the importance of this research in elucidating what is meant by social exclusion and the key drivers that impact on a person’s ability to participate and maximise their well-being.